Dear Church Family:

I am writing you this letter early Saturday morning ... June 6th. It was exactly 82 years ago today that the Allied Forces stormed the beaches at Normandy in France.  It was an event chronicled in many movies and documentaries, “The Longest Day” and “Saving Private Ryan”, to name just a couple.  I had an uncle who was a part of the events of that day, later serving under General George Patton’s Third Army throughout France in the waning days of World War II.

We are experiencing the passing of the last few of those men and women of what Tom Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation”. They truly were, and we owe so much to them. Let’s pause and give thanks this day once again for the sacrifices they made, not only in the defeat of the enemies of freedom in World War II, but in the nation that they came home to build thereafter. In so many ways, they were a second generation of “Founding Fathers” from whose tremendous sacrifices we all now benefit. Let’s thank God for the generations that have gone before us and preserved and contributed to the freedoms that we enjoy.

Last Sunday we celebrated the ordinance of communion. It was a blessed time of remembering the basis of our greatest freedom of all, our freedom from the penalty of our sinfulness and the liberty to live in holiness before our Lord.  We will return this coming Sunday to conclude our study of Luke 16:19-31 and the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Soli Deo Gloria.

ENCOURAGEMENT

Most of us memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 in the earliest days of our Christian lives: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6, KJV). I mentioned previously that today (June 6th) is the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion when the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. I wonder how many of the men on those landing craft were thinking of Proverbs 3:5-6 in those last few minutes before they hit the beaches. How many of them may have been reciting Psalm 56:3 (“When I am afraid, I will trust in Him”)?  I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I can assure you that if I was one of those soldiers, based on what I know today, those passages would be just two of many that I am sure would be flooding over my soul.

We found the following account in Robert J. Morgan’s One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart concerning Proverbs 3:5-6 a great reminder, as well as an encouragement. We hope that it blesses your hearts this day, as well. Here is Morgan’s account. 

If God can guide the birds in their migrations and the planets in their orbits, He has an appointed way for our lives and can lead us accordingly. Many Biblical texts reassure us of divine guidance, and among the best is Proverbs 3:5-6. Taken together, we have 3 commands and one all-embracing promise.

THREE COMMANDS

1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. We can lean on the Lord’s promise because we can lean on the Lord Himself who is unchanging, unfailing, unerring, and illimitable.

2. Do not rely on your own understanding. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think through decisions or use our God-given minds. It means we think through things in total submission with God’s will and in complete awareness of His superior knowledge about the things that concern us.

3.  Think about Him in all your ways. Acknowledge Him by saying, “Lord, I want to turn this dilemma or decision over to you. I desire your perfect will.”

ONE PROMISE

1. He will guide you in the right paths. He will direct you in all your ways, giving you the wisdom to do what’s best in providentially arranging the circumstances of life according to His will. He will lead you in the right path. 

Morgan next shares the following true-life account about the missionary pilot, Burleigh Law, as recorded in the book,  Appointment Congo, by Virginia Law. Here is Morgan’s excerpt of that account from that book. 

Burleigh Law served as a jungle pilot in Central Africa. One day he took off in clear skies, but shortly he noticed thunderclouds in the distance; and these thunderheads rushed together at startling speed. Burleigh frantically searched for an airstrip, but there was nowhere to land. Openings appeared in the clouds here and there, and he kept turning his plane towards them, following the little patches of blue. It was like a needle threading its way through fabric. Burleigh was lost in the skies, depending entirely on visible navigation. Finally, spotting a little landing strip, he made it safely to the ground.

Suddenly a vehicle raced up to his plane, and a nurse jumped out and ran to the plane shouting, “I don’t know where you came from, but I know you are an answer to our prayers.” This woman was staying with a missionary couple who had been isolated on a remote station for months. The unsettled political situation had left them cut off from outside communication. The roads were impassable and the bridges out. The missionary wife had become ill with fever and possible rabies. That morning they had called together the Christians in the village, and the church had earnestly prayed for God’s guidance. That day, the Lord arranged the storm clouds to direct and guide Burleigh Law and his little plane to that spot of earth.

He can direct our paths, even if they are in the clouds! 

Morgan ends this chapter with the following insight from Billy Zeoli about former President Gerald Ford:

“Every morning he walked into the Oval Office, he quoted one passage of Scripture ... Proverbs 3:5-6. That’s how the President started his every day.” 

I don’t know what storm clouds have formed in each of your lives over the past weeks or months, but one thing is certain, we can trust in the fact that God is arranging every dark sky we face to direct us exactly where He wants us to go, for His glory, for our ultimate good, and in many cases in answer to the prayers of others. I can’t wait to get to Glory and to meet that nurse that ran up to Burleigh Law’s plane in the middle of the Congo and ask her what seeing that plane land in answer to their earnest prayers did to increase her faith. What a story that will be!

May we all continue this day to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, to not rely on our own understanding, and watch what He will do in us, for us, and through us. Soli Deo Gloria!

Love,

John & Terri
Prov. 3:5-6